System for personal mail piece tracking and tracing from multiple sources by user identifier

ABSTRACT

A system and method for linking data objects and physical objects of various kinds to an identified user is described. The system provides to the identified user information relating to the delivery status of mail pieces directed to or sent by the user, and the user then tracks and traces the mail pieces. The system further provides to the identified user information relating to continued sessions through which the user provides to a postal service system information relating to mailing labels and postage.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of commonly assigned copendingU.S. application Ser. No. 14/314,849, filed on Jun. 25, 2014 by JoshuaR. Smith et al. for PERSONAL MAIL PIECE TRACKING SYSTEM, which is acontinuation of commonly assigned copending U.S. application Ser. No.13/948,719, filed on Jul. 23, 2013 by Joshua R. Smith et al. forPERSONAL MAIL PIECE TRACKING SYSTEM, now issued as U.S. Pat. No.8,874,451 on Oct. 28, 2014, which is a continuation of commonly assignedU.S. application Ser. No. 09/966,033, filed on Sep. 28, 2001 by JoshuaR. Smith et al., now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,527,284, on Sep. 3, 2013,for a SYSTEM FOR PERSONAL MAIL PIECE TRACKING AND TRACING FROM MULTIPLESOURCES BY USER IDENTIFIER, which claims priority from U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 60/236,976, filed on Sep. 29, 2000, byJoshua R. Smith, et al. for ASSOCIATING ELECTRONIC DATA WITH PHYSICALOBJECTS.

This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 09/865,889,filed on May 25, 2001, by Joshua R. Smith et al. for ASSOCIATINGELECTRONIC DATA WITH PHYSICAL OBJECTS.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The invention relates to methods and apparatus for linking data, andobjects of varying kinds, whether electronic or physical or both.

Background Information

Various delivery companies offer services through which packages can betracked and/or traced. In order to track a package, the intendedrecipient must first know that the package has been sent, and secondhave available the package identifier that is assigned to the package bythe delivery company. The identifier may be assigned to the package whenthe package is presented to the company by the sender, or the identifiermay be assigned through the use of a precoded delivery label that thesender fills out and attaches to the package. Using the packageidentifier, the intended recipient can check with the delivery serviceeither by telephone or on-line, to determine where the package iscurrently located, when the package is scheduled for delivery, and soforth. If the package does not arrive on a scheduled date, the intendedrecipient must then go back on-line or again call the delivery companyand, using the assigned identifier, check where the package is, if a newdelivery date has been set, and so forth.

If the intended recipient is to receive packages from several companies,he or she must contact the respective senders to obtain the variousidentifiers, and then contact each delivery company to obtain therelevant delivery information. The recipient must thus keep track of thevarious package identifiers, the dates which companies are deliveringthe respective packages, and so forth. Further, as delivery dateschange, the intended recipient must again contact the various companies,supply the appropriate identifiers, and ask the respective deliverycompany representatives or query the companies on-line to ascertain thenew dates.

Catalog companies may send intended recipients e-mail messages to informthem of expected shipping and/or delivery dates for previously orderedarticles. Each time a date changes for a particular order, however, thecompany must again send the intended recipient an e-mail message toinform him or her of the new date. The company may also inform theintended recipient of the current locations of the packages via e-mailmessages, as a way of keeping the intended recipient informed of theexpected delivery dates. The intended recipient must thus sort throughthe e-mail messages relating to various purchases and associate a givene-mail with a particular purchase in order to maintain an updatedshipping and/or delivery schedule.

The sender must go through similar steps to trace the packages he or shehas sent. If, for example, a particular package is not delivered by ascheduled deadline, the sender first has to learn of the problem and heor she then has to contact the delivery company with a packageidentifier and ask or query about the current location of the packageand new expected delivery dates. Further, the sender has to againfollow-up with the intended recipients and/or the delivery companiesassociated with the respective packages, to determine if the packagesare delivered on the new dates, and so forth.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is a personal tracking and tracing system that provides auser with information relating to the delivery status of packages,catalogs or other mail pieces sent to or by the user through variouscatalog companies, delivery services, and/or the postal service. Thesystem provides a user with information about the mail pieces through apersonal web page, and thus, the user does not need to know identifyingnumbers for the respective mail pieces. Further, the user does not evenneed to know that a particular package has been sent before he or shelearns through the personal tracking and tracing system to expect adelivery. The system updates the delivery status information, i.e.,expected delivery dates, current locations and so forth, based oninformation supplied by the delivery companies and/or the postalservice. Thus, to keep track of the changes to the delivery status, theuser has only to check his or her web page rather than inquire at thevarious companies or the postal service and/or sort through e-mailmessages from them.

The system provides the user with a table that includes an entry foreach mailpiece. The table may link related information, such as catalogsale information, magazine subscription offers, bill payment options andso forth to the table entry for a given mail piece. Further, the systemmay link to the entry more detailed information about the particularmail piece, such as a description or digital image of the contents. Theuser may then “click” on the links to, for example, view and pay a billelectronically. Also, the system may link to the table entries variousattachments, such as related messages from the sender, the deliverycompany and/or the postal service. A company or an individual sending ordelivering the mail piece may thus inform the intended recipient that,for example, a signature or payment is required at time of delivery.Alternatively, or in addition, the attachment may provide a mechanism bywhich the user can respond to, for example, offers that are contained inthe mail piece.

The personal tracking and tracing system allows the user to track andtrace packages without having to contact the sender, intended recipient,and/or the delivery company or postal service. Further, the system maylink other information to the mail piece delivery status, such aspurchase or payment history, related credit card debit or creditinformation and so forth, to provide the user with confirmation of thecompletion of a transaction that involves a particular mail piece.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention description below refers to the accompanying drawings, ofwhich:

FIGS. 1-8 are screen snapshots of a graphical user interface that isuseful in accordance with the personal tracking and tracing system;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of steps in providing mail piece information tothe system;

FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram of an environment in which thesystem may advantageously operate;

FIG. 11 illustrates a mechanism for presenting to the system of FIG. 10a machine-readable user ID.

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of operations of the system of FIG. 10; and

FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram of the system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT

The present invention is particularly directed to methods and apparatusfor facilitating the personalized tracking and/or tracing of mailpieces, by which is meant to include letters, catalogs, newspapers,magazines, packages and physical objects of all kinds. It is expected tobe of especial use as part of a postal system such as the United Statesor other Postal Offices, although it is not so limited and has numerousother applications as will be apparent on reading the following detaileddescription.

As will be seen from the detailed description of a specific embodimentherein, the system provides to a user such as to an intended recipient,whether an individual, a business or organization, etc., a personalizedweb page that contains delivery status information about mail piecesdirected to or sent by the user. The web page also associates with thedelivery status information for a given mail piece various relatedinformation, such as, the delivery mechanism, i.e., land or air orpostal service; mail piece type; and, as appropriate, links to relatedon-line subscription or catalog offers, payment options and so forth.The table further includes an attachment field in which messages fromthe sender, postal service or other delivery company may be linked tothe mail piece delivery status information.

The delivery status information may be displayed in a table, withentries that are distilled from information provided by the sender, thepostal system or other delivery services, and/or the intended recipient.Using the table, the user can readily track and trace the respectivemail pieces from the date the mail pieces are provided to, for example,the postal service until the date the mail pieces are delivered by thepostal service to the intended recipients.

The invention is explained by means of various screens. FIG. 1 depictsan introductory screen 10 of an exemplary graphical user interface thatmay be used in accordance with the present invention. The screen isdisplayed, e.g., on the video monitor of a computer connected to acomputer network such as, but not limited to, the worldwide web. Thescreen summarizes the services that a user may access from the screen.In the present instance, five categories of services are provided,namely: My Mail, Virtual Post Office, Network Banking, DirectoryServices and My Profile. The personal tracking and tracing systemdescribed herein is provided under the My Mail category. While the otherservice categories may have various links to and from the informationprovided under the My Mail category, we do not otherwise discuss theother services. Certain of the service categories are discussed in aco-pending United States Patent Application entitled METHOD ANDAPPARATUS FOR LINKING DATA AND OBJECTS and accorded Ser. No. 09/865,889which is assigned to a common assignee and incorporated herein in itsentirety by reference.

The screen 10 contains an area 12 for entry of a user name and an area14 for entry of a password. The name, which may be any sort of user ID,and the user password control access to the My Mail and the otherservices. The user ID may comprise, for example, the user's given name,an identifier assigned by the system or the user's e-mail address. Thepassword is preferably chosen by the user him or herself, since thataccess to the personalized services is controlled by the user. Anaddress area 16 displays the address of the site on the web to which theuser is connected, that is, the site that is providing the desiredservices. The site is, for example, initially accessed in the usualmanner, i.e., by entering the web address in a browser and pressing“return” on a keyboard, or by clicking on a link to the web address thatis presented, e.g., on a website of the postal service or on some sortof other video display. “Button” 15 enables the user to register at thewebsite for the My Mail or other services provided through what isreferred to herein as the “Postport System.” Button 13 in conjunctionwith a selection of a service from a list 18 allows the user to accessthe selected service.

FIG. 2 depicts screen 20 to which a user is directed when button 15 ofFIG. 1 is used to sign into the Postport system for the first time.Using the screen 20, a new user provides the requested address andidentification information in order to register for the various Postportsystem services, and thus be assigned a Postport User ID. A userpreviously registered may be provided access to the screen 20 byselecting the My Profile service from the list 18 on the screen 10 ofFIG. 1. Using the screen 20, the registered user may change its address,identification and/or password information. After registering orupdating the registration information, the user selects one of the otherservices, for example, the My Mail service, using the menu bar 24.

Referring now to FIG. 3 screen 30 depicts an exemplary display that aregistered user obtains by selecting My Mail from, for example, the listof screen 10 (FIG. 1) or the menu bar 24 of screen 20 (FIG. 2). Thedisplay is essentially a personal web page for the user identified bythe user ID 26. The display includes a table 28 with entries 32 for therespective mail pieces that are directed to the user, who in the exampleis an individual. The table entries are sorted by delivery date, asindicated by the menu bar 29 that is associated with the table. Byselecting an appropriate sort category from a list (not shown) that ispulled down using an arrow 31, the entries may instead be sorted bysender, delivery address, if the user has more than one, or by mailtype, for example, packages, letters, bills and so forth.

The user may instead view a table that contains information about mailpieces which were sent by the user. To do this the user selects theappropriate table category from a list that is pulled down using arrow40. The table of outbound mail pieces and the information containedtherein are discussed in more detail below with reference to FIG. 7.

Referring still to FIG. 3, the table entries 32 may be viewed in more orless detail by selecting the appropriate view category from a sidebarmenu 42. The calendar view category depicts the table entries as mailpiece type icons 37 on the appropriate days of a displayed calendar, asdiscussed in more detail in the co-pending application that isincorporated herein. The detailed view listing displays the respectivetable entries in more detail, is discussed below with reference to FIG.6. The icons may further be linked to information that indicates thecurrent locations of the respective packages. Alternatively, the tablemay include a separate location field (not shown).

The table 28 includes a plurality of fields 34 that contain, for eachentry, information relating to the corresponding mail piece. A statusfield 34 a informs the user of the delivery status of the mail piecethrough the icons 35. If the mail piece has been delivered, the entryincludes a checkmark 35 a in the status field. For a mail piece that hasnot yet been delivered, the entry includes in the status field an iconthat indicates how the mail piece has been shipped, i.e., by postal airservice as indicated by a plane icon 35 b, or by postal ground serviceas indicated by a truck icon 35 c. Additional icons may be used toindicate other delivery services and/or companies, such as, Fed Ex, UPS,and so forth, or the icons 35 may be linked to the associated deliveryservice and/or company information.

A type field 34 b indicates to the user, again through the use of icons37, the category of mail piece. The mail piece may be a magazine asindicated by the icon 37 a, a bill as indicated by the icon 37 b, aletter as indicated by the icon 37 c, a package as indicated by the icon37 d or a catalog as indicated by the icon 37 e, and so forth asindicated by various other icons 37. A delivery field 34 c informs theuser of the actual or expected delivery date, while a sender field 34 dinforms the user of the source of the mail piece. An attachment field 34e displays an associated message that was supplied by the sender of themail piece and/or the postal service or other delivery company.

The type status field 34 b includes a “lightning bolt” icon 39 in anentry 32 that includes an attachment that is available to the user onlythrough the Postport system, and is thus not available at, for example,the sender's web site. In the table 28, the entry that corresponds to aletter (icon 37 c) from Mom (sender field 34 d) includes a lightningbolt icon to indicate that there is a message that is associated withthe mail piece through the Postport system. To read the message, theuser clicks on the displayed information. The information displayed inthe attachment field in a given entry is essentially information thatidentifies the associated message to the user, much like a Re: line inan email message. Alternatively, the display in the attachment field maybe the start of the message.

As another example, the lightning bolt icon 39 associated with the bill(icon 37 b) from City Electric (sender field 34 d) indicates that anattachment to the entry 32 includes a message that is associated withthe City Electric bill and available to the user only through thePostport system. For this entry, the displayed information indicatesthat the attachment relates to the user's on-line account, and the usersimply clicks on the displayed information to read the associatedmessage. The message may, for example, set up the payment transactionthrough the user's account, and allow a user to make the payment simplyby approving the transaction.

For those entries 32 without lightning bolt icons 39, the user mayinstead view the same information on, for example, the sender's website. The attachment to a magazine (icon 37 a) may, for example, be amessage about subscription offers that is sent to everyone who receivesa copy of a particular magazine. The user can read the attached messageif he or she is interested in subscribing or otherwise ignore themessage.

The table may also include in a given entry a link to a mechanism thatallows the user to respond electronically to, for example, thesubscription offer. The link may be included in the message that isavailable from the attachment field or may be included in informationcontained in or accessible from the sender field, as discussed below.

The sender field 34 d includes Postport icons 40 in the respectiveentries 32 for which the source of the information has beenauthenticated. Certain sources, such as utilities, may supply certain orall of the mail piece content with a digital signature. The digitalsignature relates at least to the information that identifies the sourceof the mail piece. The Postport system uses the digital signature in aconventional manner to verify that the information was sent by theindicated source and, as appropriate, that the content has not beenaltered.

As an example of using the table 28, the user learns from the firstentry 32 in the table of screen 30 that a magazine, as indicated by theicon 37 a in the type field 34 b, was delivered on the sixth of January2001, as indicated by the check mark 35 a in the status field 34 a, andthe date in the delivery field 34 c. The entry has, as an attachment, ageneral message concerning subscription renewal that is otherwiseavailable on-line.

Through information contained in or accessible from the sender field 34d, an entry 32 may be further associated with one or more links to asender company URL, to various associated mail-piece specificinformation, and/or to mechanisms through which the user can respondelectronically to offers included in the mail piece, such as, forexample, subscription offers. The user clicks on the informationdisplayed in the sender field and is either directly connected by thelinks to, for example, a particular URL or, as discussed below withreference to FIG. 9, to other company information associated with themail piece through the Postport system. Alternatively, as depicted inFIG. 4, the user may be presented with a screen 50 that includes apull-down menu 52 of the various links.

FIG. 5 depicts a screen 60 in which a pull-down menu 62 for an entry 32in the table 28 that corresponds to bill (icon 37 b) from City Electric(field 34 d) provides to the user links to the web pages associated withvarious on-line bill payment services offered through City Electric. Asdiscussed in more detail below with reference to FIG. 7, the Postportsystem can trace such a payment and provide to the user a paymentdelivery date.

Referring now to FIG. 6, a user may obtain a detailed view of aparticular mail piece, for example, the City Electric bill, byhighlighting the corresponding table entry 32 and clicking on the detailview listing in the sidebar 42. The system then displays a screen 70,which may include a copy or facsimile 72 of the corresponding mail pieceand a list 74 of mail piece particulars, namely, sender, date sent, datereceived, and relevant information, such as the amount of the bill. Theuser has options, delineated by buttons 76, of paying the bill now fromhis or her on-line account, paying later from the account at a specifiedor unspecified date, or setting a payment policy such as directing thata certain portion of the bill be paid now and the remaining portion ofthe bill be paid after, for example, the deposit of a paycheck into theuser's account. Through the buttons, the Postport system thuscross-links the mail piece information with the on-line account andpayment information provided by, in the example, City Electric.

The detailed views of various table entries 32 may include other imagessuch as a copy of a bill, a catalog cover, and so forth. Further, thedetailed view may include various mail delivery options that areaccessible using the screen buttons. For example, the user may instructthe postal service to throw away future catalogs from a given sender, orre-direct the catalogs to a different address. As discussed in moredetail in the co-pending application that is incorporated herein byreference, the Postport system links the selected delivery options withthe user ID, and thereafter, follows the delivery instructions withrespect to mail pieces directed to the user.

The mail piece image 72 included in the detailed view may be provided bythe source of the mail piece, or alternatively, the image may beprovided by the postal service or other delivery service by the scanningof the mail piece.

Referring now to FIG. 7, the Postport system also provides personaltracking and tracing of mail pieces sent by the user. As depicted inscreen 100, a table 128 includes entries 132 for the respective mailpieces that the user has sent. The user selects this table from a pulldown menu (not shown) using arrow the 40 in menu bar 29. The tableincludes status, type and delivery fields 134 a, 134 b and 134 c thatare similar to the fields of the table 28 discussed above with referenceto FIG. 3. The information for these fields may be supplied by thepostal service or other delivery company when the mail piece is providedto them by the user. In the case of electronic mailings, such as on-linepayments, the information may instead be supplied by the company that isthe intended recipient.

The table 128 includes a field 134 d that specifies the intendedrecipient. This information may be supplied directly by the user,supplied through a machine readable code on a pre-coded delivery labelor, for electronic mailings, supplied by the user or by the intendedrecipient. The table also includes a field 134 e for memos provided bythe user and/or the postal service. The user may, for example, type amessage into the system when the user is providing the mailing addressinformation for a mailing label, or when he or she is making anelectronic payment of a bill.

Using the table 128, the user can track when, for example, an on-linepayment was received by a particular company. In the example, the usermay trace an on-line payment to City Electric made using the paymentoption available through the City Electric bill entry 32 in table 28.

The respective table entries 132 may also be linked to other informationthat the company to which the mail piece is directed maintains by, forexample, account, invoice or transaction numbers associated with therespective mail pieces. One such example is depicted in screen 130 ofFIG. 8, in which the entry for a return to a particular company includesa display 140 of an associated transaction history. The Postport systemlinks the mail piece with the transaction information based on anassociated invoice or transaction code that is supplied by the user onthe mailing label of the mail piece, or by the company on a precodedreturn label.

Using the Postport system, the user may thus have in one table acomplete record of a transaction from start to finish, including thedates of the delivery of an ordered article to the user and the returndelivery of the article to the company, the dates of the debiting and/orcrediting of the transaction to his or her credit card, and so forth.Transaction information may similarly be available from, for example,utility companies that bill the user monthly. The user may thus have atany given time up-to-date billing and payment histories, without havingto contact the respective billing companies.

The Postport system can be thought of as giving a mail piece a digitalshadow, that is, a link from the physical mail piece to informationabout the mail piece or associated with the mail piece by the sender,the postal service and/or the intended recipient. The information linkedto the mail piece can be address and delivery particulars, a digitalcopy of the mail piece, a summary of the mail piece, an excerpt from themail piece, a history of the transactions associated with the mailpiece, and so forth. Other information associated with the mail piececan be hyperlinks to source or recipient URLs, and personalized orgeneral message attachments.

As discussed above, the Postport system utilizes a server to acquire andcross-link information from the various mail piece sources and thepostal service or other delivery companies. The system then organizesthe information into personal web pages for the respective users and, asappropriate, includes therein links to sender URLs on-line accounts andtransaction information.

As illustrated in FIG. 9, a company normally performs specific steps indesigning and sending out mailings. Typically, a company chooses amailing list (step 90), designs a mail piece (step 91), addresses andmails the mail piece to the entities on the list by delivering them to,for example, the postal service (steps 93, 95). As applicable, thecompany may check that the mail pieces are delivered by contacting thepostal service or the intended recipients. To take advantage of thetracking capabilities of the Postport system, the company also designs adocument, such as an XML document, or a web page that contains thecontents of or selected information from the mail piece (step 92) andprovides the document or web page URLs and the names on the mailing listin an uplink to the Postport system web site or server (step 94). ThePostport system then uses the document and associated list to produceentries 32 for the tables 28 (FIG. 3) of the respective users on thelist, that is, to cross-link the table fields with the appropriateinformation based on the users' IDs. As discussed, the table entriesalso include related Postport system derived information such asassociated delivery dates, current mail piece locations, deliveryoptions, and so forth, as well as cross-links to associated on-lineaccounts, transaction histories and related information provided by thesender. Further, the document or the URLs may contain a link to amechanism by which the intended recipient can respond electronically toany offers, such as subscriptions offers, included in the mail piece.The Postport system then links the table entries to the users' web pagesand on request the system displays the appropriate entries as a table ona given user's web page.

The methods described herein are readily implemented using, e.g.,conventional file servers and personal computers, although more powerfulcomputers can, of course, be gainfully employed. The user database isreadily prepared using conventional database software such as thatsupplied by Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM, among others, or by softwaresuch as the Escher Group's WebRiposte™ for web-based applications.Communications between users of the system and the hardware componentsthereof may utilize any form of electronic communication, such as directwire, wireless, modems, and the Internet, among others.

FIG. 10 illustrates an environment in which the system of FIGS. 1-8 isadvantageously used. A Post Office server 170 is connected via a networksuch as the Internet 172 to one or more postal stations 176, 178 and anumber of remote terminals or nodes 174 that run or have access to webbrowsers that communicate with the server or client executables thatcommunicate directly with the server or with the web browsers. Forsimplicity, only one such node is shown but it will be understood thatthat number of nodes to be used is potentially unlimited. Each postalstation contains one or more work station nodes 180, 182 which may beinterconnected by a network 184. The nodes provide access to thebrowsers and/or clients that communicate with the server. If desired,printer/scanners 186-190 may be attached to the workstation nodes toenable scanned input and hard-copy output at the nodes. Node 174 may belocated in the home or office of an individual; nodes 180, 182 arelocated at the various postal service stations maintained by the PostOffice, and are made available to individual users.

The Postal Server may comprise a single server, or be one of a pluralityof such servers, preferably interconnected for sharing data. Associatedwith each server is a database 171 on which the name and other pertinentdata such as physical (i.e. street) address, email address, user ID,telephone number, and other such data with respect to each of its usersare stored. The Postal Service itself may use the information in thisdatabase to associate the information about the mail pieces with thevarious users. Alternatively, the Postal Service may, under suitableconditions, provide access to its database directly to a third party,which may then associate various information with the identified users.For example, the third party may associate accounts or transactions withthe respective users based on the identifying information contained inthe database, and thereafter, supply relevant account or transactioninformation to the Postal Service sorted by the User IDs.

The user may employ the linkage system of the invention from his or herhome (e.g., via web browsers or clients accessible through the node 174)or from a postal station 176, 178. Thus, wherever the individual hasaccess to the browser or client, the user can personally track and tracemail pieces for which he or she is identified as the sender or theintended recipient.

As discussed, the Postport system links information about mail pieces toa user ID, such that the user can, through his or her personal web page,personally track and trace mail pieces directed to or sent by the user.The system may also link other information to the user ID, such as, forexample, information associated with one or more postal transactionsessions. The user can then start, continue and end a given postaltransaction session at any time by communicating with the system throughhis or her personal web page from virtually any PC or any postal stationterminal, or node, that is capable of communicating with the postalservers 170. The Postport system may, for example, link information foruse in printing mailing labels, buying and printing postage, and soforth, to the assigned user ID, such that the user can later access theinformation to continue, resume or end a given postal transactionsession from, for example, a terminal of a postal station 176, 178.

Referring still to FIG. 10 and also to FIG. 12, a user begins a postaltransaction session from, for example, a remote node, or PC 174, bylogging on to the Postport system using the assigned user ID and anassociated password, as discussed above with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2(step 1200). The user selects the Virtual Post Office services andconducts a postal transaction session in which the user enters mailingaddress information, selects postage, and so forth in the appropriatedata templates or wizards provided by the Postport system (step 1202).The user may then print mailing labels and/or postage from his or herhome PC using the printer 186 and end the session (steps 1206, 1210,1212). Alternatively, the user may continue the session (steps 1206,1208) and later print the labels and/or postage at the postal station176 or 178 through the various workstation nodes 180, 182 when he or sheis dropping off the mail pieces for delivery through the postal service(steps 1214, 1216).

If the user continues the session, the Postport system retains therelevant postal transaction session information in a manner that islinked to the user's assigned user ID, as discussed below (step 1208).When the user later logs on to the Postport system from, for example, aterminal 188 at the postal station 176 using the assigned user ID, thesystem transfers the session to the terminal (step 1214). The user thencontinues to enter and/or edit the mailing address and postageinformation and/or print the labels and the postage before ending thesession (step 1216).

The session transfer may be facilitated by assigning to a given user acoded physical identification token, such as a key fob 200 with a UserID included as a machine-readable barcode 201 (FIG. 11). The userpresents his or her physical identification token to a scanner that isconnected to the system through, for example, the work station node 180.The system then prompts the user to supply his or her password and,after verification of the password, the system transfers the linkedmessages and thus the session to the terminal then in use. As discussedin more detail below, the system may also transfer the linked messagesto the various other terminals in the same postal station, such that theuser can readily transfer the session to another terminal that isconnected to a printer, a postage meter, and so forth, by logging onusing the assigned user ID. The user may thus take full advantage of thePostport system's virtual post office services, even if he or she doesnot have the appropriate hardware and/or software to print the labelsand postage.

The physical identification token discussed above can also be used toprovide the user with access to other information that is linked by thesystem to the assigned user ID. For example, the user may use the tokento gain access to the personal tracking and tracing tables 28 and/or 128via a terminal 180, 182 at one of the postal stations 176, 178.

More specifically, the Postport system server 170 stores informationprovided by a user during a postal transaction session as a plurality ofqueued or stacked messages. If Escher Group's WebRiposte data basesoftware is used, the messages are retained in a WebRiposte messagestore. The messages include an attribute or field associated with theassigned user ID, and one associated with a customer session identifierthat corresponds to the particular session. The system also assigns toeach message a unique message identifier that includes the postal office(if any) in which the message was generated; the terminal, or node, fromwhich the message was generated; and a sequence number that correspondsto the order in which the messages were generated by the node. Thesystem also maintains an index, sorted by user identifier attribute,that allows the messages associated with a particular customer to beaccessed quickly. Each time a user logs into the Postport system andselects the postal transaction session services or is identified to apostal workstation, the server checks the status of the associatedmessage queue or store, at the server 170. If the terminal determinesthat the user has continued a customer session, the terminal essentiallyreconstructs the session using the associated queued messages andpresents to the user the screens, templates and/or wizards that allowthe session to be continued from the point at which the user lastcommunicated with server.

If the user is communicating with the server 170 from a terminal in oneof the postal stations 176 or 178, the system may broadcast theassociated messages to all of the terminals in the station. Eachterminal then maintains an up-to-date message queue or store for thesession that is associated with the assigned user ID. The user or apostal clerk may then readily transfer the session to any terminal inthe postal station, to continue and/or complete the session, print outmailing labels, meter postage, and so forth.

As discussed previously, and illustrated in functional block diagramform in FIG. 13, one or more servers 1300 of the Postport system acquiredelivery information, about a given mail piece of a plurality of mailpieces, electronically by receiving messages from and/or by access torespective databases of at least two of a sender of the mail piece 1330,a postal service 1320 and a delivery company 1330. The one or moreservers 1300 associate the delivery information about the given mailpiece, and the actual given mail piece, with a user identifier thatcorresponds, in the system, to the intended recipient. The servers linkinformation corresponding to the given mail piece, such as (1) deliverystatus information, (2) address and delivery particulars, and at leastone of (3) a digital copy of the mail piece, and (4) an excerpt from themail piece with the user identifier of the intended recipient. Theservers send the links to, or provide access to the linked informationvia, a web component, such as, for example, a website. The user is thusprovided with the capability to track and trace the given mail piece bylogging onto the website.

Before providing the information to a user, a user-supplied useridentifier and associated password are authenticated by the system, in aknown manner, after the identifier and password are entered through agraphical user interface provided by a web browser 1360. Uponauthentication, the web browser provides access to a display 1350 of thedelivery status information linked to the user identifier. The displayincludes (1) the date of shipment of the given mail piece, (2) the dateof delivery of the mail piece, and (3) one or more dates of debiting orcrediting one or more payments associated with the mail piece.

The system encompasses variations of the components and operationsdiscussed herein. For example, the system may assign more than one userID to a given user, based on multiple postal addresses. The system thenprovides the user with the capability to individually track and tracemail pieces sent to or from the different addresses.

What is claimed is:
 1. A mail piece tracking system including: A. one ormore servers for linking mail piece delivery status information withuser identifiers and producing listings of the delivery statusinformation for mail pieces directed to the respective users; and B. oneor more browsers or client executables through which the respectiveusers associated with the user identifiers access the delivery statusinformation.
 2. The mail piece tracking and tracing system of claim 1wherein the one or more servers a. further associate with the deliverystatus information for a given mail piece a message from the mail piecesender, and b. include a link to the message in the listing of thedelivery status information.
 3. The mail piece tracking and tracingsystem of claim 1 wherein the one or more servers a. further associatewith the delivery status information for a given mail piece relatedtransaction information, and b. include a link to the transactioninformation in the listing of the delivery status information.
 4. Themail piece tracking and tracing system of claim 1 wherein the one ormore servers a. further associate information relating to the contentsof the mail piece with the delivery status information, and b. includethe information relating to the contents in a listing of the mail piecedelivery status information.
 5. The mail piece tracking and tracingsystem of claim 1 wherein the one or more servers includes in the mailpiece delivery status information i. a sender identifier, ii. a mailtype identifier, and iii. a delivery service identifier.
 6. The mailpiece tracking and tracing system of claim 5 wherein the one or moreservers further includes in the mail piece delivery status informationrelated messages from the sender and the delivery service.
 7. The mailpiece tracking and tracing system of claim 5 wherein the one or moreservers further includes in the mail piece delivery status informationlinks to on-line information provided by or associated with the sender.8. A method for tracking and tracing mail pieces including the steps of:A. associating respective users with user identifiers; B. associatingwith the identified users mail pieces directed to or sent by therespective users; C. linking mail piece delivery status informationrelating to the respective mail pieces to the respective useridentifiers; D. providing to a given user a listing of the respectivemail pieces and the associated mail piece delivery status informationthat is linked to the user identifier that corresponds to the givenuser.
 9. The method of tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 8wherein a. the step of linking mail piece delivery status information tothe user identifiers includes updating the information, and b. the stepof providing a listing of mail piece delivery status informationincludes providing in the list the updated information.
 10. The methodof tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 8 wherein the step oflinking mail piece delivery status information with the user identifiersincludes associating therewith information that identifies the senders.11. The method of tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 10 whereinthe step of linking mail piece delivery status information with the useridentifiers includes associating therewith messages from the respectivesenders.
 12. The method of tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 8wherein the step of linking mail piece delivery status information withthe user identifiers includes associating therewith information thatidentifies the respective mail piece delivery services.
 13. The methodof tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 11 wherein the step oflinking mail piece delivery status information to the user identifiersincludes associating therewith messages from the respective deliveryservices.
 14. The method of tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 8wherein the step of providing a listing includes providing a graphicalinterface connected to notify the user that corresponds to a given useridentifier of the delivery status of mail pieces addressed to the user.15. The method of tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 14 in whichthe interface is configured to display icons indicating different typesof mail pieces addressed to the user.
 16. The method of tracking andtracing mail pieces of claim 14 in which the interface is configured todisplay delivery dates associated with the mail pieces.
 17. The methodof tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 16 in which the interfaceis configured to display the date a given the mail piece was logged intoa postal delivery service.
 18. The method of tracking and tracing mailpieces of claim 16 in which the interface is configured to display thedate on which delivery of a given mail piece is expected to occur. 19.The method of tracking and tracing mail pieces of claim 16 in which theinterface is configured to display the date on which delivery of givenmail piece was made.
 20. The method of tracking and tracing mail piecesof claim 14 in which the interface is configured to display informationconcerning the source of a given mail piece.